00:00Did you know that black women are three to four times more likely to die than white women
00:04during pregnancy?
00:05For black women, maternal health is now more concerning than ever.
00:09The staggering death rates are absolutely connected to being a black woman in America.
00:14Our blackness isn't killing us, it's the system's treatment of our blackness that's
00:18killing us.
00:19Allow me to over-explain it to you.
00:21What is maternal health?
00:25Maternal health is the health of a woman during pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum.
00:29For some women, giving birth is a fulfilling and beautiful experience.
00:33However, for many black women, it is also associated with medical issues and even death.
00:38The number of women dying during childbirth has steadily increased, especially black women.
00:43And for every woman that dies, there are dozens more who experience severe complications like
00:48hemorrhaging, high blood pressure, blood clots, gestational diabetes, postpartum depression,
00:54and more.
00:55About 50,000 women suffer complications during pregnancy in the United States.
01:00Let's dig into that 50,000.
01:02According to reports every year, right here on American soil, between 700 and 900 women
01:08die from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth.
01:11Apparently, the rate of life-threatening complications for new mothers in the United States has more
01:16than doubled in the last 20 years because of preexisting conditions, medical errors, poverty, and unequal
01:22access to care.
01:24Researchers have also found that women who deliver at so-called black-serving hospitals are more
01:29likely to have serious complications than mothers who deliver at institutions that serve fewer
01:33black women.
01:34Well, ain't that about a...
01:36With societal and systemic racism plaguing black mothers, it's hard to be stress-free.
01:41And we all know that stress on a pregnant woman helps lead to high blood pressure and preeclampsia.
01:47And it's been reported that preeclampsia and eclampsia, which are the seizures that develop
01:51after preeclampsia, are 60% more common in black women.
01:55And to add insult to injury, they're also more severe.
01:59According to the CDC, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease are two of the leading
02:04causes of maternal death.
02:06What's even more frustrating is that half of these maternal deaths are preventable.
02:11Many women sharing their stories have something in common.
02:14Doctors who've seen it all and brush their symptoms away with pain relievers like Tylenol.
02:19Studies show that black patients are treated differently than white patients with the same symptoms.
02:24Racism's hold on American culture manifests in many ways.
02:28Past and present experiences with racism, implicit bias, and discrimination shape black mothers'
02:33interactions with their doctors.
02:35Black mothers need to be forceful and insistent about their symptoms to get the care that
02:40they need to survive childbirth.
02:43Serena Williams has been extremely vocal about maternal health.
02:46Williams suffered a pulmonary embolism after giving birth via C-section.
02:51A blood clot in her lungs could have claimed her life if she had not been vigilant about reporting
02:56her symptoms.
02:57And let's be real, her wealth and access may have helped her case too.
03:02So what can black mothers do?
03:04Essence's own Kirsten West Savali said it best.
03:07Black women have had to fight for access to the full spectrum of womanhood, to be treated
03:11not as breeding chattel, but as fully human.
03:15Systemic oppression has always been mapped on the bodies of black women.
03:19If we truly want to prevent maternal deaths, we have to look at care in the community as
03:24well as in the hospital.
03:26We can't move the needle on maternal death unless we acknowledge that women's health is
03:30as important before and after pregnancy as it is during.
03:35Women are dying at alarming rates.
03:38The health of women of reproductive ages is declining, and it's not only because of pregnancies.
03:43Public health researcher Arlen T. Geronimus conceptualized the word weathering to describe
03:49how the chronic and cumulative ramifications of white supremacy have detrimental impacts on
03:55the health of black people in the United States, particularly black women.
04:00What will it take to get people to recognize not just the racial disparity in death rates,
04:05but the disparity and concern over black women's health and lives?
04:10Self-care is health care.
04:12There have been recent efforts to drop maternity benefits from core health insurance coverage.
04:16Why?
04:17Don't pay to affordable health care.
04:19Policymakers need to change that.
04:21Medicaid finances nearly half of all U.S. births.
04:24However, many medical providers don't accept Medicaid, which obviously presents challenges
04:29for mothers when it comes to getting the medical care and attention they need.
04:33Black women are less likely than other women to be insured.
04:36They are also less likely to get recommended care for disease prevention and management.
04:41And if they are insured, they have to be concerned with the quality of care they receive.
04:45Because we all know if you're poor, you get the worst of everything, and that includes
04:49health care.
04:50Privilege knows no bounds.
04:52We've got to break the heavy chains of racism.
04:55We have to call out discrimination when we see it or experience it.
04:58There needs to be an increase in efforts to reduce stress on black mothers.
05:02Health care providers should be offering alternative techniques, such as mindfulness-based meditation.
05:08Sadly, there needs to be implicit bias training on health care providers.
05:12We must push for better and more comprehensive health care for women within childbearing age,
05:18whether they are pregnant or not.
05:19And mothers need to be more vigilant about their symptoms during pregnancy.
05:24Make them listen.
05:26The change that maternal health needs is going to take change from us all.
05:30Until next time, I'm Danielle Young, and this is The Overexplainer.
05:34So thank you for listening.
05:41Thank you for listening.
05:42Bye-bye.
05:44See you again soon.
05:46Bye-bye.
06:00Bye-bye.
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